Stocks reached a new all-time high above 86,500 points on Wednesday as earnings season has reignited investor interest in index-heavy stocks, with positive sentiments stemming from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and optimism for political stability.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 index surged 673 points to touch 86,513 in intraday trade as of 10:41am, up from yesterday’s close of 85,840 points.

The two-day meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (CHG) of the SCO kicked off in Islamabad on Tuesday amid hopes of a possible positive developments before it ends today.

Reacting to the early bull-run, Khurram Schehzad, CEO of Alpha Beta Core, stated, “Successfully organising a major global event like SCO summit, bringing together regional leaders, especially the arrival of Indian external affairs minister, must have further strengthened investor confidence.”

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar arrived in Pakistan on Tuesday in the first such visit in almost a decade for the SCO meeting. It has been nearly a decade since a foreign minister from Pakistan’s arch-rival India has visited amid frosty relations between the two nuclear powers.

Stocks rebounded on Tuesday, closing 579 points higher, boosted by positive earnings outlook and optimism surrounding the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Islamabad.

Saad Ali, Director of Research at Intermarket Securities, informed private news channel that investor sentiment strengthened after headway on the highly-contested government-proposed bill, and the perceived low likelihood of PTI protests in Islamabad.

“The market has also digested and priced in the negative impact of termination/modification of PPAs of old IPPs,” Ali added.

Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corporation, in conversation with private news channel, said that stocks rallied as investors considered reduced political uncertainty and economic gains from the SCO summit.

“A decline in bond yields and the government’s discussions about privatising state-owned enterprises contributed to the bullish activity in PSX,” Mehanti added.

The meeting of the SCO, a Eurasian security and political group formed in 2001 by Russia and China, is the highest-profile event hosted by the South Asian nation in years

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar announced on Saturday that he will not engage in discussions with Pakistan during his forthcoming visit to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave.

“It (visit) will be for a multilateral event. I’m not going there to discuss India-Pakistan relations. I’m going there to be a good member of the SCO,” he said at the sidelines of an event in the national capital.

“But, you know, since I’m a courteous and civil person, I will behave myself accordingly,” he added.

“At the moment SAARC is not moving forward, we haven’t had a meeting of SAARC for a very simple reason – there is one member of SAARC who is practising cross-border terrorism at least against one more member of SAARC, maybe more… Terrorism is something which is unacceptable and despite a global view of it if one of our neighbours continues to do it – there cannot be business as usual in SAARC. That’s the reason why the SAARC meeting has not happened in recent years – but it doesn’t mean that the regional activities have stopped. In fact, in the last 5-6 years, we have seen far more regional integration in the Indian subcontinent,” he added.

On Friday, India announced that Jaishankar will travel to Pakistan to participate in the SCO conclave in mid-October.

This marks the first visit by an Indian external affairs minister to Pakistan in nearly nine years, despite ongoing tensions between the two nations over cross-border terrorism.

Pakistan is set to host the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG) meeting on October 15 and 16. The last Indian external affairs minister to visit Pakistan was Sushma Swaraj, who attended an Afghanistan conference in Islamabad in December 2015.

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal responded to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s upcoming visit to Pakistan, where he will lead the Indian delegation at the SCO Summit 2024.

In a social media post, Sibal shared “just a thought” and asked what India had gained and what Pakistan had lost.

Also Read: S Jaishankar to attend SCO summit in Pakistan on October 15-16; first foreign minister to visit the country in 9 years

“Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Invitation to Heads of Government Jaishankar to go to Islamabad First visit after 9 years Just a thought: What has India gained? What has Pakistan lost?” he questioned.

“I don’t have an answer!” he said.

MEA said on Friday that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be travelling to Pakistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit scheduled to take place in October.

On being asked about India’s participation in the upcoming SCO Summit, the MEA Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “EAM Jaishankar will lead a delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO summit which will be held in Islamabad on October 15-16.” 

Also Read: SCO Summit 2024: S Jaishankar delivers PM Modi’s message on terrorism, Climate change – 6 key points

In August, Pakistan invited India to the in-person meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government (CHG). During a media briefing on August 30, spokesperson Jaiswal confirmed this invitation from Islamabad.

When asked about it, he said, “Yes, we have received an invitation to the Council of Heads of State Government meeting (SCO). We don’t have any updates yet but will inform you about the situation later.”

Additionally, in May 2023, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited India for the SCO meeting in Goa, marking the first visit by a Pakistani Foreign Minister to India in six years.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a permanent intergovernmental international organisation established on June 15, 2001, in Shanghai by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Also Read: Russia will build Central Asia’s first nuclear power plant in an agreement with Uzbekistan

Its predecessor was the Shanghai Five mechanism. SCO countries currently include nine member states: India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

The SCO has three observer states: Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Belarus.

At the Samarkand SCO Summit in 2022, the process of raising the status of the Republic of Belarus within the Organisation to the level of a member state started. The SCO has 14 dialogue partners: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Egypt, Cambodia, Qatar, Kuwait, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Sri Lanka. 

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will visit Pakistan to participate in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit later this month, the Indian foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday.

“The external affairs minister will lead a delegation to Pakistan to participate in the SCO Summit which will be held on October 15 and 16,” Randhir Jaiswal said at a weekly press briefing.

The visit will be the first by an Indian foreign minister to Pakistan in nearly a decade.

Earlier, the Foreign Office (FO) had confirmed that Prime Minister Modi has been invited to the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting, which Pakistan is hosting on Oct 15-16, under its rotating chairmanship.

FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch had said, “An invitation has also been sent to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi,” adding that some countries had already confirmed their participation in the meeting.

Meanwhile, a comprehensive security plan for the upcoming SCO summit was appr­oved on Wednesday at a meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Interior Mohsin Naqvi.

The interior minister said additional personnel from Pakistan Army, Rangers, FC and Punjab police will be deployed to ensure foolproof security for the guests.

In May last year, then-foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had visited India to attend the two-day meeting of the SCO Cou­ncil of Foreign Ministers.

He was the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in almost 12 years.

At a Senate panel later that month, Bhutto-Zardari called it a “productive and positive decision” to participate in the event.

“As far as the Kashmir issue, bilateral issues between Pakistan and India, and the responsibilities of multilateralism are concerned, my conclusion after the trip is that it is a productive and positive decision to participate in the event,” he had said.

Similarly, former adviser on foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz visited Amritsar in Dec­­ember 2016 for the Heart of Asia conference. Add­itionally, when India hosted the SCO Council of Heads of State on July 4, 2023, in a virtual format, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif participated, demonstrating Pakistan’s willingness to engage despite the strained bilateral relations with India.

India’s participation in the SCO, even otherwise, is a delicate balancing act, weighing its need for regional security cooperation against its wariness of China’s growing influence within the organisation. By engaging selectively in SCO’s economic strategies, India is pursuing a nuanced approach that aims to counterbalance Chinese dominance while fostering constructive ties with Central Asian nations.

India’s hesitation to attend meetings in Pakistan is a well-established stance, dating back to its boycott of the 19th Saarc Summit in November 2016, which was to be hosted by Pakistan. The boycott led to a stalemate, leaving the regional body in limbo, as the Saarc charter mandates that all member states must be present for a summit to take place. In contrast, the SCO has no such restriction, allowing for more flexibility in its meeting arrangements.